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History-maker: Mazie Hirono or Colleen Hanabusa?

Hanabusa (left) could skip ahead of Hirono in the history books. | AP Photo

A speedy appointment would also give Hawaii a second Senate vote if there’s a deal to avert the fiscal cliff at the end of the year.

“The governor would like to appoint before the new U.S. Senate is sworn in during the first week of January,” said Abercrombie spokeswoman Louise Kim McCoy. “He knows the party will move with deliberate speed to provide a list of names and that the party will give everyone full consideration, as will the governor when he gets the list of names.”

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Abercrombie may also have a political incentive to pick Hanabusa: Installing her in the Senate would take out a possible 2014 primary challenger as he continues to wrestle with dismal poll numbers.

Others whose names could appear on the state Democratic Party’s list include Tulsi Gabbard, the 31-year-old Iraq War veteran who just won the race to succeed Hirono in the House; former Rep. Ed Case, whom Hirono defeated in her Senate primary; Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz; former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who has lost recent primary races for governor and the House; and Esther Kia’aina, a longtime Akaka staffer who served as chief of staff for Case. Tony Gill, chairman of the Oahu Democratic Party, has already applied.

But the 61-year-old Hanabusa, who already shattered the glass ceiling as the first female president of the Hawaii Senate, is the clear front-runner. Shortly before his death Monday from respiratory complications, Inouye sent a letter to Abercrombie, urging him to appoint Hanabusa to succeed him.

“It’s the absolute, the ultimate kind of honor that anyone could be paid as a politician in Hawaii, to have Sen. Inouye … say that he would like to see me succeed him. It is an amazing honor,” Hanabusa told POLITICO on Wednesday. “And that is why I’m saying that I want to be able to honor him and his memory.”

The letter has put Abercrombie in a tough spot as he weighs whether to defy the will of Hawaii’s most beloved politician, patriarch and war hero. Inouye, a World War II combat veteran and Medal of Honor recipient, lost his right arm in battle.

Services were held at 10:30 a.m. Friday at National Cathedral in Washington, after which his casket was to be flown to his native Hawaii for burial on Sunday.

Representing Hawaii in Congress since it achieved statehood in 1959, Inouye steered hundreds of millions of dollars in federal earmarks to his home state as chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee. And he played kingmaker for decades, endorsing Hanabusa over the Democratic establishment-backed Case in a 2010 House special election. The two Democrats split the vote, handing the seat briefly to Republican Charles Djou, who was defeated by Hanabusa in the general election later that year.

“The senator’s last act was to ask for Colleen to be appointed,” said Neal Milner, a political science professor at the University of Hawaii. “There doesn’t seem to be any reason why the governor wouldn’t appoint her.”

Added a Democratic Hill aide: “Dan Inouye controls the state even from beyond the grave.”

In an interview, Hirono, 65, a Japanese immigrant and former state lawmaker, said she had no preference who gets the Senate nod, saying she expects Abercrombie “to do what is best for Hawaii.”

Asked whether she was concerned about the possibility Hawaii’s other senator could become more senior than her, Hirono replied: “They’re expecting us to be sworn in on the same day.”

If or when Hanabusa is tapped for the Senate slot, expect a Democratic free-for-all for her House seat. Case, Hannemann former Gov. John Waihe’e, and Honolulu City Councilman Stanley Chang are possibilities. On the Republican side, Djou and former Gov. Linda Lingle, whom Hirono defeated in her Senate race, could jump in the race.

Readers' Comments (5)

I don't live in Hawaii, but if I did I think that I might be upset with Hirono about the appointment of a new Senator. Is Hirono a Senator for herself or for Hawaii? Does it matter in any way if it is fair to Hirono, I imagined at the this level of the game that many people wouldn't really be wondering if it was fair or not, it's not about them, it's about representing your state. These types of politicians need to go. Sorry Hirono, I'm looking for work horses, not show horses.

Unlike the House, seniority counts for everything in the Senate, right down to office space (including the little-known Capitol offices on the Senate side), parking spaces and even where your seat is situated in the Senate (the only rule there being the the two officers of either party (Leader and Whip) sit side-by-side against the center aisle.)

There is even a ranking system for new senators - Former senators, then former Presidents, then former House Members and then former Governors and then all others. Then it is subdivided by number of terms, then by state population according to the most recent census.

The more senior your rank, the more likely you are going to be a chairman or ranking member of a committee. The Appropriations committees always had the most senior members of the Senate because that was where the money was doled out. The great appropriators of our times came from small states - Byrd, Stevens, Inouye, are but three and all ended up serving as Chairman because of their seniority and look how they funneled monies to their respective states of West Virginia, Alaska and Hawaii. While junior members serve on the committee as well, they are usually rotated on and off the committee over the first 2 terms of their service.

So getting someone into Inouye's seat before January 3, 2013, advances that person's seniority by at least 12 spots (the number of new members who were elected in the recent elections) and maybe 13 if that person is sworn in before Jim DeMint's (who is resigning) successor. So instead of being number 100 in seniority, they would be number 86.

So, when you think of Inouye and his colleague, Dan Akaka, they had close to 73 years of combined seniority in the Senate and both held chairmanships of committees. Inouye was the Senior Senator and served as President Pro Tempore, which put him behind Joe Biden and John Boehner in the line of succession to the Presidency.

On January 3, 2013, their successors will have a maximum of 14 days of combined seniority between the two of them, depending on when Inouye's successor is appointed. They will hold the bottom or next to bottom position on each committee they serve, and they will be lucky even to get a chairmanship of a sub-committee.

So seniority is all-important in the Senate and Hawaii, after years of having senators in the top 50, will now suffer because their senators will be in the bottom 15.

My solution - appoint Hirono now to the Inouye seat, she and Akaka woud serve until January 3, then on January 3, Hirono moves to the seat she is elected to and then on January 3, Hanabusa can be appointed to the Inouye seat and Hirono is the senior Senator.